Sean Duffy is a Republican district attorney and former participant on MTV's "The Real World." YouTube

October 4, 2010

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The video: Wisconsin congressional hopeful Sean Duffy is a prosecutor and former reality-TV star — but he was also once a world-class competitive lumberjack. And Duffy, a Republican who once appeared on MTV's "The Real World," puts his logrolling skills to work in his latest campaign commercial, using the sport as a metaphor for what is wrong with Washington. The ad shows a "career politician" in a fancy suit logrolling with a series of ordinary citizens. The politician spins a construction worker, a child, and an old woman into the water as Duffy says, "Washington's reckless spending and government growth is spinning our country out of control." Then Duffy, dressed in flannel, climbs onto the log, spins the politician into the water, and urges voters to "dunk our career politicians and get America back on track."The reaction: In a year when so many ads are skewering Washington, Duffy's jab seems "downright tame," says Erik Hayden at The Atlantic Wire. Think of it "as a light-hearted cousin to Ben Quayle's 'knock the hell out of Washington' spot." Many of this year's wackiest campaign ads have come from candidates who don't stand a chance, says Ed Morrissey at Hot Air, but voters obviously like Duffy's "down-home style" (he wielded an axe in his first commercial). A Republican-sponsored poll recently showed Duffy leading Democrat Julie Lassa by 14 points in the race to fill Democratic Rep. David Obey's open seat. If disaffected voters "want someone to logroll the status quo," Morrissey says, "WI-07 voters now know which candidate to back." Watch Duffy's logrolling ad: